Fridge Art Fair has a reputation for going its own way. This year, the artist-run happening returns to the Lower East Side. In ...

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Fridge Art Fair has a reputation for going its own way. This year, the artist-run happening returns to the Lower East Side. In 2014, Fridge founder Eric Ginsburg was forced to scramble for a new location following the sudden closure of the Angel Orensanz Center. In the past few days, Ginsburg announced that the 2015 fair would be held at the Holiday Inn at 150 Delancey St., among other locations.

“Episode One: We’ve Only Just Begun (Featuring a Sunflower and a Panda)” will take place May 14-17. An opening gala on Thursday, May 14 will benefit BARC animal rescue in Williamsburg. The fair got its start in 2013 at Kazuko Miyamoto’s tiny storefront, Gallery OneTwentyEight, and then branched out in Miami.

From our March magazine, a roundup of recent openings on the Lower East ...

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The scene outside the Taittinger Gallery at 154 Ludlow yesterday.

From our March magazine, a roundup of recent openings on the Lower East Side:

Taittinger Gallery (154 Ludlow St., at Stanton Street) Richard Taittinger, whose great grandfather founded the Taittinger champagne empire, is debuting an art gallery in the former Living Room space on Ludlow Street. After a VIP reception last night, the inaugural show is opening tonight at 6 p.m. It’s titled “Sinthome” and is based on the theories of Jacques Lacan. The 5,000 square foot space will be dedicated to mid-career contemporary artists who are under-represented in this country. Taittinger told the New York Times that he chose the Lower East Side over Chelsea because he wanted to be “a big fish in a small pond.” The Living Room, the beloved music club, fled to Brooklyn after the building owner jacked up the rent.

Lindsey Thornburg (21 Orchard St. – at Canal Street) The bohemian-chic fashion designer has opened a new boutique on the Lower East Side. Back in 2006, Thornberg launched a collection of witchy cloaks from surplus Pendleton blankets. Today she offers a full line of ready-to-wear apparel. She is no stranger to the neighborhood. Thornberg was previously located on Stanton Street before a rent increase forced the closure of her original shop.

Bridget Donahue (99 Bowery – at Hester Street) The former director of Gavin Brown’s Enterprise has opened a large second-floor space overlooking the Bowery. The debut exhibition, which opened Feb. 19, features 73-year-old Lynn Hershman Leeson, a well-known mixed-media artist who explores the relationship between humans and technology. The show will be open until April 5. As the New York Times reported, Donahue “will champion artists of all kinds—older, under-the-radar, anti-establishment—who might otherwise get sidelined in Chinatown’s trend-heavy scene.”

Chapter NY (127 Henry St. – at Rutgers Street) An art gallery that was only open weekends has moved to a full-time schedule. Nicole Russo had been splitting her time between the Henry Street space and the Madison Avenue gallery, Mitchell-Innes & Nash. Now she’s striking out on her own with plans to expand the gallery’s artist roster slowly over time. The space is open Wednesday–Sunday from 11 a.m.–6 p.m.

East Village Wine & Liquors (80 Clinton St. – at Rivington Street) The long-established liquor store relocated from a space on Stanton Street to a stretch of Clinton likely to draw more foot traffic. The new store is smaller, but it’s freshly renovated. The shop stocks most popular liquor brands, as well as an affordable selection of domestic and foreign wines. They offer free delivery.

In the past several weeks we have been in contact with Shilpa Sethi, who is preparing to open ...

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Renderings by Central Landscape Architecture.

In the past several weeks we have been in contact with Shilpa Sethi, who is preparing to open a new nature-based preschool at 99 Suffolk St.

Here are the first renderings for the 3500 square foot space that will serve as the outdoor classroom for Elements Preschool. There are distinct active play, observation, performance, picnic and garden spaces.

Inspired by the ‘forest school model,’ the curriculum is built around self exploration in a natural – yet urban – environment. From the school’s promotional materials:

Children learn concepts of science, numeracy and literacy informally from nature by not just playing in nature but playing with nature. Most aspects of the curriculum are taught outside, stimulating imagination and bringing subjects to life in a real context. The changing landscape and unpredictability of nature creates a new and versatile curriculum on a daily basis.

The school, which replaces LES Montessori, opens in September. Parents are welcome to begin touring the facility in April, when construction of the outdoor space is scheduled to begin. Sethi tells us there will be spots for 60 children and after school programming is also planned. The school will be open to kids ages 2-5. Admissions information is available here.

Tuesday, March 3, 2015 | Mike Rucker took this photo recently from the Williamsburg Bridge | Weather: The sun will turn to clouds today and ...

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Tuesday, March 3, 2015 | Mike Rucker took this photo recently from the Williamsburg Bridge | Weather: The sun will turn to clouds today and then we’ll see snow showers and a high of 35. Sleet develops overnight, more snow Wednesday | Happening Today: Several notable openings, including: The Art Show, the debut exhibition at the Taittinger Gallery, plus openings at Allen & Eldridge (inside James Fuentes Gallery) and The Hole | Send us your photos and tips. | Subscribe to our daily email.

Tenants at 113 Stanton St. have taken their landlord, Samy Mahfar of SMA Equities, to housing court. In a lawsuit ...

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113 Stanton St.

Tenants at 113 Stanton St. have taken their landlord, Samy Mahfar of SMA Equities, to housing court. In a lawsuit filed Feb. 19 by the Urban Justice Center, the residents said their lives are being endangered due to unsafe renovation work. On Friday, a judge lifted a temporary restraining order that had put a stop to construction, but according to tenant advocates, ordered Mahfar to adhere to building safety guidelines and to his own lead mitigation plan.

The building, purchased by Mahfar last fall for $5.2 million, is the third property owned by the controversial developer to come under scrutiny for problems with toxic paint. In December, local Council members Rosie Mendez and Margaret Chin sharply criticized SMA Equities for its tactics and vowed to pressure city agencies to enforce safety laws at Mahfar’s Lower East Side buildings.

A Department of Health inspector visited 113 Stanton St. on Feb. 3. In a report, the inspector concluded, “Construction dust and debris (was) observed in all building common areas due to debris being removed unsafely… Conditions created by such work… are dangerous to human life.” Tests showed that 11 out of 12 samples collected throughout the building had unsafe amounts of lead.

Attorney Garrett Wright asked the housing court judge to stop “illegal construction,” which he said was “creating a hazardous environment and endangering (the tenants’) health and safety.” In January, work began on a vacant fifth floor apartment and in common areas. A lead mitigation plan was given to tenants in the building’s other three apartments.

According to the lawsuit, Mahfar “violated every single health and safety protocol” in the plan. There were “clouds of toxic lead dust in common areas,” Wright alleged, “and dangerously high concentrations of lead dust and debris” throughout the building. The work, he argued, was not just careless but part of a “campaign of harassment in order to make the building so uncomfortable and unsafe that tenants will vacate their rent-stabilized apartments.”

Among the alleged violations listed in the court documents: the lack of a Buildings Department permit for work being done in the basement, construction equipment and debris blocking hallways, water and heat outages, improper and unsafe disposal of debris and intolerable noise. In one instance, a tenant reported being chastised by building management for calling 311 to file complaints. The lawsuit claims that SMA Equities’ practices in the building are part of a pattern also experienced by tenants at 210 Rivington St. and 102 Norfolk St.

For the first time, Mahfar is fighting allegations from tenants through Connelly, McLaughlin & Woloz, a public relations company. Here’s the statement we received Friday evening from Karen Imas, a managing director of the firm:

The lawsuit filed by (the) tenants at 113 Stanton Street is riddled with inaccuracies and false allegations. We are confident the truth will prevail. We are pleased with today’s decision by the Court to lift the temporary injunction which stopped work. It is unfortunate that the Petitioners have repeatedly refused to cooperate directly with management through our multiple communication channels. We have been and remain ready to act to make any necessary repairs, while the Petitioners have denied access to their apartments for that purpose. SMA Equities currently has no violations on record at 113 Stanton regarding any issues related to lead safety or sufficient heat and hot water. We have used, and continue to use, EPA-certified contractors to ensure the safety of all occupants of the Building, and have worked with all City agencies with oversight of the project to insure compliance, which includes remedying any conditions found by DOH or DOB in an extremely expeditious manner. We have been cleared by those agencies with respect to lead safety. Recognizing the importance of lead safety, SMA Equities has retained one of New York City’s top environmental consulting firms to provide oversight on this project moving forward. SMA Equities takes great pride in our commitment to health and safety of all of our tenants and to improving the quality of life in the Lower East Side. We look forward to working with the tenants to resolve this matter expeditiously.

One building tenant. Sergio Alarcon, released a statement of his own after Friday’s hearing:

We believe that Samy Mahfar [SMA] is what is sometimes referred to as a “predatory landlord.” Considering his well-documented history involving a number of buildings he owns on the Lower East Side & what we are experiencing in our building [113 Stanton Street], a pattern seems to emerge: As the term implies, Mr. Mahfar’s standard “predatory” business model is to buy buildings occupied by rent-regulated tenants and then immediately begin hazardous and extremely disruptive gut-renovation/construction projects on units while conducting regular building-wide shut-downs of heat and water, etc… We believe this is in an effort to create such sub-standard living conditions in his buildings that rent-regulated tenants eventually give up, maybe accept very low buy-out offers, or simply leave.

Two other residents, both of whom asked not to be identified, spoke with us in the hallway of the courthouse last week as they waited for the hearing to begin. One of them, a 12-year tenant of 113 Stanton St., said it has been “constant chaos” since SMA Equities took over the building. Potentially hazardous debris, they said, has been thrown in their personal garbage cans. Last week, the tenants explained, the heat went off after two risers were knocked out. As of Friday, it had been a week-and-a-half without heat on some of the coldest nights of the winter. “It’s an intimidating environment,” one tenant asserted.

In 2013, residents of 143 Ludlow St. also sued Mahfar, eventually settling their case. Some time ago, the Cooper Square Committee, a longstanding tenant advocacy organization, helped people in several Lower East Side buildings form the Mahfar Tenants Alliance. Brandon Kielbasa, Cooper Square’s lead organizer told us, “Mahfar has now been put on notice that we are going to throw everything we have at him… The Mahfar Tenants Alliance is a great group and they are not afraid to take things to the next level.”

For our regular feature spotlighting the people who live and work on the Lower East Side, we talked with Lost Weekend NYC owner and ...

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For our regular feature spotlighting the people who live and work on the Lower East Side, we talked with Lost Weekend NYC owner and creative director Michael Little.

How long have you lived on the Lower East Side?

I have lived on Norfolk Street at Rivington since 2006.

Why did you move here?

I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, then lived up and down the West Coast from Alaska to Oregon to Northern California. In 2003 I received a fellowship to graduate school at Syracuse University, so I packed everything I owned in the back of my Land Rover and drove east. After grad school I came to New York City to teach 8th grade in the South Bronx. My first six years in New York were spent between the LES and the South Bronx.

I wanted to live in the Lower East Side to be close to the Bowery Ballroom, Mercury Lounge and Pianos. I wanted to live near the venues and galleries I’d heard about as a kid north of Seattle. I remember the Rancid video for Timebomb which was filmed on the corner across from Streit’s and remember a younger version of myself thinking what a cool place to live! This would have been ’95. And I have spent the past ten years a block from that corner.

I love my apartment. I found a rent stabilized 1 bdrm the summer of ’06 and have been here ever since. I’m on the fifth floor – it’s good for the calves. For the past ten years I’ve lived here with my German Shepherd. I got to know the streets and neighborhood through walks with her. First the bar owners and supers of the buildings on my block. Then guys that opened restaurants, the bouncers late-night at the speakeasys, the bodega owners. Very quickly I became aware of a very neighborhoody vibe on my block.

What’s your favorite spot on the LES?

I love the block of East Broadway between Essex and Grand — tree-lined, red brick, families. I run from Lost Weekend down to the East River Park and always hit this stretch. In a certain light it could be New York twenty years back; a New York in an era of fedoras, trench coats & Checker cabs.

Favorite cheap eats?

I am a creature of habit. Every day I get a kale salad from either El Rey or the Fat Radish. Breakfast is usually a Juice Press juice on the way into Lost Weekend. Classic Coffee Shop has great peanut butter toast.

Favorite place for a special night?

When Mission Chinese was on Orchard I was there four nights a week, now that they’re even closer to Lost Weekend I go more. Other faves are Bario Chino, Forgtmenot and Fung Tu. Late nights lately I’ve been spending time at the Leadbelly. I’ve gotten to know the people behind these spots and I love getting to support their projects.

How have you seen the neighborhood change?

The neighborhood has changed substantially in the decade I’ve been here. I moved to the LES pre-Blue Building, pre-New Museum, pre-Wholefoods. Most of the building where I live was home for small families. Now it’s mostly renovated and young professionals – or whatever they do. When I first moved to the LES I didn’t have much of a reason to come south of Delancey (esp. on Orchard). When I opened Lost Weekend in 2011 the neighborhood was just beginning to transition. There was Classic Coffee and Brown, Fat Radish had recently opened. And then Lost Weekend.

I am a new business, and in the tradition of generations of small businesses in the Lower East Side –

… as I’m writing this Grace Koo who lives next to Lost Weekend comes into the shop to let me know someone has tipped over a motorcycle down the block belonging to a girl we both know…and can I help her put it back up…so off we go, dig the bike out of a snowbank, get it righted & move it away from the corner, Grace has me take a picture and we text it to the girl who’s bike it is…and we’re back…

The fabric of the LES since the 1700s has been built by a culture of people coming from other places to make a life in New York. Businesses opened and closed and employed and sold and bartered and opened and closed. I was part of a Tenement Museum presentation on the legacy of businesses in the LES and was humbled to see what I’m doing at Lost Weekend (surfboards, coffee), albeit original in content, is completely part of an historic tradition dating back to the first Irish, German, Italian and Chinese immigrants to the neighborhood. Which goes something like this: I live here, I want to make a living in my neighborhood and open a business.

It’s an honor to be a part of this longstanding trend and to have had the success I’ve had – at the same time I acknowledge the successes are bred into the fabric of this neighborhood in a tradition much bigger than me. Lower East Siders are enterprising. We now have a tie shop, something like 130 art galleries, skateboard shops and in the tradition of the bargain district of past times: a handmade leather-goods store. Much of the transition from a neighborhood based in bars and nightlife, which transitioned into garments and bargain clothing, has shifted to reflect other niche commodities more reflective of the emergent demographics.

And what’s to come in the next 5 years as the SPURA project takes place, these smaller, enterprising business are going to be representative of a new generation of heritage in the LES. When there are pedestrian malls and condos and ultra-modern skyscrapers photosynthetic lighting panels and passive solar heating facades – it is going to be the businesses like the ones now on Orchard and Ludlow – the small businesses – that are going to be responsible for retaining the identity of the Lower East Side.

What do you miss from the old LES?

Hard to say. As a business owner I know full well there is a push/pull dilemma in neighborhoods and communities as they develop over time. I am bringing something to the LES, the LES is changing and new people are moving in and businesses are opening. However, in the wake of these new businesses residents people have been displaced, priced out. I am part of that. I moved here in 2006.

Someone lived in my apartment before me and someone before that dating back to the 1900s when whomever first moved into 106 Norfolk was part of a neighborhood in the midst of evolution. Lost Weekend’s customers are people who are relatively new residents to the LES, however recent their tenure, as important to me as their patronage is the rich cultural fabric that helped make the LES the vibrant destination which has attracted new inhabitants for hundreds of years.

So what do I do? I attempt to cultivate both. Lost Weekend offers free coffee to teachers in the neighborhood; during Sandy when the neighborhood lost power I brought a grill onto the street and grilled coffee for the neighborhood; other business owners and I began charging peoples’ cell phones in the blackout – and those of us still in the LES banded together to make ourselves available to the people around us; I collaborate with schools and local fundraisers in the LES; and I work with several local non-profits directly representative of resident interests in the neighborhood.

Ask people who have lived here long enough and they’ll tell you they miss the old LES. I have a photographer friend who reminds me this neighborhood is nothing like it was in the 80s. He has had a studio in the LES for three decades. He says he had to hide his camera gear in the sleeves of his jacket when he left the house after being mugged several times. Even when I first started coming down Orchard Street in 2006/7 it was dark, quiet. Storefronts were gated, graffitied and largely vacant.

Does this mean I want to see Walmart or Duane Reade on every corner? Likely not. But do I want to see the new generation of ‘legacy’ business owners – like Mike Forrest of Galli, Paul Sierros of Forgtmenot, Danny Bowien at Mission Chinese and myself – make it? Of course I want them to succeed. One hundred years from now history will look back at these new businesses in a spectrum of businesses who’ve helped shape the landscape of the Lower East Side. And 100 years from then it will be the businesses who come long after we’re gone who will be lamenting the ‘Old Days’ of the Lower East Side. And so it goes.

Is there a new arrival you love? Why?

Robert and Petra at Petee’s Pie Co. make amazing pies. They are from Virginia and their day looks something like this: they come in at 10am, brew coffee and start baking pies. When you walk in you are immediately bathed in the smells of butter and baked fruit reminiscent of countryside and State Fairs and tire-swings. I am there too often and have gotten to know Robert and within five minutes of talking with him I was ready to buy into the idea that what’s been lacking in my life is pie.

What drives you crazy about the neighborhood?

Not much drives me crazy about living and working here. I am a satisfied customer. I would like to see fewer cars and more bikes. A dog park maybe. Some more green space (but the people at the LES BID and the 1Million trees project are working on that).

What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever seen on the LES?

Two days after Sandy, Jullian Plyter of Melt Bakery came walking down Orchard with a generator strong enough to power an entire block and asked me if I’d like it. I plugged it in, fired it up and in the midst of an entirely dark and desolate Orchard Street, I had a fully-lit coffee shop with lights and heat. Which isn’t the strangest thing.

When the sun went down I wheeled the generator down to Forgtmenot for Paul Sierros to use and I showed up – generator in tow – to a fully-lit, running restaurant he’d rigged to run entirely off the power from his van. Lights, music, kitchen, drinks. All from a lone cord running from a Nissan Quest idling in the street.

I’m not sure this is totally legal, but when people were holed-up in their apartments, huddling under blankets and eating canned goods by candle-light five days after we’d lost power, they had a place a called Forgtmenot with heat and warm food and good company.

Who’s the best neighborhood character you’ve met and why?

There’s a guy who comes into Lost Weekend every day who’s name is Caps. Though he thinks my name is Bill, so someone will have to fact-check this. Caps hasn’t bought anything at the shop to my knowledge in three years. Once I gave him some cash for a cell phone. When he comes in, Caps uses the bathroom and as he’s drying his hands will ask me how I’m doing. He says ‘God is good!’ That he’s ‘doing Him. 25/8.’

Once he told me he had a girl at home who was pregnant but was down in the LES to see his other girl…that God had blessed him with too many women. Usually he’s wearing several sweaters and a Jets jacket. Then he says he’ll be back tomorrow to drop some more DNA.

Tell us your best LES memory.

Sundays in the summer we’ve had this tradition of BBQ-ing at Lost Weekend. Usually someone will text me Sunday morning and ask if we’re cooking. Then people start coordinating and by 6pm the neighbors start coming through with hot dogs and hamburgers and Tecates – all coordinated with little effort on my part. Someone will bring wine. Someone else brings ice. Someone brings a football. And what would look like a family picnic anywhere else in the world takes place on Orchard Street until the sun goes down.

Then everyone pitches in and doing dishes and pushing in chairs. I get the sense this would happen totally without me being there. But these are the memories I value most: the people I’ve gotten to know through the business and living here have a place where they want to be on Sunday nights, people gather, talk about the waves, eat and commune.

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The Art Show, one of the most highly regarded and longest running art fairs in the nation, opens its twenty seventh edition on March 4th at the Park Avenue Armory. The fair, organized by the Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA) and run in collaboration with Henry Street Settlement, features carefully curated solo, two-person, and thematic exhibitions by 72 of the nation’s leading art dealers.

Here are the highlighted events from our March events calendar, coming out in the latest edition of The Lo-Down’s print magazine this week:

Sun. 1

James Lecesne – The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey at Dixon Place: Award-winning writer and co-founder of The Trevor Project, Lecesne presents a solo show portraying various characters of a small Jersey shore town as they struggle to understand what happened to 14-year-old Leonard Pelkey. Adapted from his YA novel Absolute Brightness, with music by Duncan Sheik.

The Art Show at the Park Avenue Armory: Visit the longest running and most esteemed fine-art fair in the country and know that the price of admission is going to a good cause. The show is organized by the Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA) and benefits neighborhood local Henry Street Settlement. Museum-quality displays showcase everything from 19th- and 20th-century masterpieces to contemporary works, not to mention a donated Matisse that will be part of the silent auction this year.

Call Me Crazy:Diary of a Mad Social Worker at the Nuyorican: If you missed Helena D. Lewis’ award-winning solo show this past summer, now is your chance to catch her comedic, autobiographical take on life as an inner-city social worker. Lewis recalls her true-life experiences working with prostitutes, drug addicts and prisoners.

Through March 7 at 236 East 3rd St. (bet Ave. B and Ave. C), 7 p.m., $20, nuyorican.org.

Fri. 6

Josephine and I at Joe’s Pub: Don’t miss Olivier-nominated actress and writer (The River, Julius Caesar, “Getting On”) Cush Jumbo’s one-woman show and “tour de force” directed by Tony nominee Phyllida Lloyd (Julius Caesar, The Iron Lady, Mamma Mia!). The show interweaves a modern-day story of an ambitious young woman with the fascinating life of the peerless, fearless Josephine Baker.

“The Last Mambo King with Orlando Marin” at the Museum at Eldridge Street: You won’t be able to resist tapping your feet as bandleader and drummer Orlando Marin and his band perform classic mambo and salsa music, as well as original music from his 60-year career as a beloved Borscht Belt performer.

The concert is part of the museum’s “Lost and Found” music series at 12 Eldridge St., 3 p.m., $20 adults, $15 stu./sen., eldridgestreet.org.

Thurs. 12

New Zealand Performance Festival at La MaMa: Nine comedy, dance, installation and theater works by eight performance groups grace the performance spaces at La MaMa for a new theater festival from a wacky ensemble of artists from Wellington, New Zealand.

Through March 29, showtimes vary, $20, nznewperformance.com.

Weds. 18

The Whites by Richard Price, writing as Harry Brandt, at Tenement Talks: Writer Richard Price (Lush Life, Clockers, The Wire) discusses his new detective story—about cops in New York who are haunted by the cases they couldn’t close—with Henry Chang, author of an acclaimed series of Chinatown-based crime novels.

103 Orchard St., 6:30 p.m., free, tenement.org.

Thurs. 19

I’m Looking for Helen Twelvetrees at Abrons Arts Center: Five-time Obie Award recipient actor/playwright David Greenspan presents a world premiere of his latest: the story of a young man’s pursuit of Helen Twelvetrees, a real-life star of the early talkies, during her run as Blanche DuBois at a summer stock theater in 1951. The production features Greenspan and is directed by Mr. Greenspan’s longtime collaborator, Leigh Silverman.

A Brief History of Beer at Under St. Marks: Drink along at this monthly performance—part sketch, part lecture, part drinking game—in which audiences travel back in time in the “Quantum Pint Machine” with writers/performers Will Glenn and Trish Parry to save the world from a mysterious nefarious villain. In honor of Women’s History Month. This month’s show focuses on the role of women in brewing throughout the ages.